What is the origin of the recent slang word 'munter' for an ugly person?
Question #66462. Asked by satguru.
wdwfla
Answer has 3 votes
wdwfla 19 year member
87 replies
Answer has 3 votes.
From what I have found minger and munter are basically the same thing.
ming: /ming/ (orig Scot) n an unpleasant smell, a stink, vi to look or smell unpleasant [origin unknown]...minger n (derog) an unattractive or undesirable person or thing. minging adj having an unpleasant smell, stinking; dirty or unpleasant.
I'm finding the same thing wdwfla found...however, I made the mistake of stumbling across this website that has 48 entries for "minger." And...I might add...48 entries too many.
It's interesting, as ming is a very old Scottish word and long been in regular dictionaries. Munter however is pretty recent in London and so new no origins yet appear anywhere I've looked. Also minger is literally translated as 'stinker' and all related insults, where munter only means someone ugly.
Urban dictionary is great if you want to know what a word means, but rarely stretches to origins.
Jun 01 2006, 6:27 PM
satguru
Answer has 2 votes
satguru Moderator 21 year member
1250 replies
Answer has 2 votes.
I have been researching (OK, asking others to do so...) and the answer is either a combination of minger and monster, or based on a nasty racial South African term munt, which seems unlikely to have hit the UK in the 2000s, but possible.